Fast & Furious

Director: Justin Lin

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster

Respect must be given to Justin Lin for making a complete turnaround from the putrid third film, Tokyo Drift. Lin directed that entry as well, and somehow secured his position as director for this fourth installment (which I always thought should have been called 4 Fast 4 Furious). This is the type of project I'm sure he wanted to make with the third one, but simply couldn't due to a rancid script. This time out, Lin scales back the flash and concentrates a little more on character and action, delivering relatively convincing portrayals of both. He urges the emotion back out of his actors that this series has been missing since Rob Cohen's flick started this off back in 2001; the film definitely benefits from having the actors TRY instead of drifting through the last one (pun intended...HAH!).

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that Fast & Furious is a "good" movie. Labels like that are dangerously subjective. But I will say that I liked it more than any other movie in the franchise. Yes, yes - I realize there's not much competition involved; in reality, the first film is the only one truly worth watching, and that's only if you can't get your hands on a copy of Point Break. But this film gave me the distinct feeling that everyone involved has grown up over the past few years, and the movie was better because of that development. Even Chris Morgan, who wrote this and the third film, seems to have grasped a better sense of the fun that this series needs to please its audience. And while Tokyo Drift didn't incorporate any references back to the first two movies (with the exception of that short Vin Diesel cameo), Fast & Furious does a great job of tying the series together while keeping the action at a satisfying level.

A guy named Han (Sean's "backer" in TFATF:TD) works with Dom (Diesel) and Letty (Rodriguez) in the beginning of this film before he heads out to Tokyo for the events of the third flick. This nice little send off was well-handled and gives the audience a reference point as to when these events are happening within The Fast and The Furious universe. After the fantastic opening sequence involving hijacking an oil truck in the Dominican Republic, the cops are slowly figuring out that Dom and Co. are behind these robberies. Brian O'Conner has upgraded from cop to FBI agent despite stealing a bunch of money at the end of 2 Fast 2 Furious, and he's living in Los Angeles tracking down a drug smuggler who uses street racing cars as his delivery trucks. Of course, Dom and Brian inevitably cross paths when Letty is brutally murdered by one of the drug smuggler's henchmen and they both join the smuggler's driving squad.


From here, Fast & Furious gets into some dicey territory as far as predictability goes, but that doesn't mean it isn't sufficiently entertaining. It made something like $72 million in its opening weekend, shattering the record for April releases. The online community was shocked to hear this news, and some even seem angry about it. Come on, this isn't Paul Blart: Mall Cop here. Why do you think people saw this movie? Because fans of the franchise were holding out hope that this entry might be better than the last, and with the reunion of Diesel and Walker, they were rewarded. It was a much better film than the last two installments - yes, even with its ridiculous moments. When Dom pieces together Letty's death just by finding some scratch marks on the road, it's pretty unbelievable. When the guys are driving at insane speeds through a labyrinthine tunnel system under the US/Mexico border, it doesn't make any sense. But the movie was fun again, damn it. And that's something that you just can't say about the last two.

End of Spoilers

I've been comparing this movie to its predecessors a lot, but does it stack up against other action movies of today? The answer, I think, is yes. Aside from the aforementioned tunnel sequences, I thought all the driving scenes were pretty cool. It had the requisite drug traffickers, the scantily clothed women, the love interest for Brian (Mia, Dom's sister, back in a throwaway role), and a nice revenge plot for Dom. As a no-brainer action flick, this definitely delivered.


It would seem I've written too much about this already. But trust me - even if you've only seen (and enjoyed) the first film in this series, I would highly recommend checking this out for more of the same. Is it worth seeing in a theater? I'd say yes, if only for the gorgeous opening scene. And the ending (which I guess I won't give away here) was perfect for this type of movie and definitely left the door open for the inevitable sequel The Fa5t and The Furiou5. Until next time...